I agree with the whole hive mind idea to a point, but it's an ongoing commitment to fill that content bucket. David Marchese had a fine NYT piece called "The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down" last month where he interviewed Cal Newport, who's writing a book on slow productivity. In his view, a problem of the hyperactive hive-mind work flow is that it makes productivity so personal that "you put the pressure on individuals to figure out how to organize their work," but the constant context shifting from one channel to another becomes "productivity poison." Slow productivity has three principles: do fewer things, work a natural pace, but obsess over quality. Just a thought.
Boy I could not agree more about slow productivity! I actually think it's consistent with this "Connect -> Read -> Write" system, which is built around connection, active reading, and writing in public. Active reading and writing in public part is a high bar to get over, and forces you to slow down. So of course, I think we're on the same page here!
Connect/read/write is a great discipline for the new year. I'm also reminded of the power of paper and physical sketching--they tell you in design thinking sessions that adding a sketch to your post it note increases your investment in the idea and you ability to sell it. Thanks for posting Mark!
Thanks, Mike! It's funny, I didn't start sketching notes and generating metaphors using the "Sean Adams approach" until the last year or so; I had gone almost entirely to digital with note-taking and it's such a breath of fresh air and MUCH faster to generate ideas with a paper in pen, by far.
I cited a bunch of the research I found on the topic, and it's hardly decisive, but there are some truly excellent research and findings about the rate and effectiveness of paper & pen.
That said, I really don't care at this point.... I'm sold!
I completely agree with this but the LinkedIn part is frustrating me because I get such limited feedback. I'm getting a lot of readers, but I have to curate my feedback loops. What's been disapointnig in my AB testing on LinkedIn is that the more banal and mediocre the topic is, the more likely it gets engagement. Put a picture of Einstein with a falsely attributed quote! Tons of engagement. Put a piece about critical thinking....crickets :)
Great point, Michael. And that's also why I tried to emphasis that "beehives aren't built in a day," meaning, what I found is that it took about a year of consistent writing in public before comments actually started flowing, mostly, for me, on LinkedIn. Eventually, my "swarm" (modest such as it is!) started to build.
Writing / moving to Substack is actually an interesting case in point: already, I've had comments and interactions over there, even though I have hundreds of people subscribed to my Substack newsletter. My guess is it's the same effect -- it make take months or more to build a "hive" of people that interact.
That's perfect. I'm about the 'Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast' mantra for my own writing. The benefit, to your point, is that by forcing myself to articulate these ideas, I am beginning to see patterns, confluences, and fusions of ideas that I think I can weave into a book eventually.
I agree with the whole hive mind idea to a point, but it's an ongoing commitment to fill that content bucket. David Marchese had a fine NYT piece called "The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down" last month where he interviewed Cal Newport, who's writing a book on slow productivity. In his view, a problem of the hyperactive hive-mind work flow is that it makes productivity so personal that "you put the pressure on individuals to figure out how to organize their work," but the constant context shifting from one channel to another becomes "productivity poison." Slow productivity has three principles: do fewer things, work a natural pace, but obsess over quality. Just a thought.
Boy I could not agree more about slow productivity! I actually think it's consistent with this "Connect -> Read -> Write" system, which is built around connection, active reading, and writing in public. Active reading and writing in public part is a high bar to get over, and forces you to slow down. So of course, I think we're on the same page here!
Great article reference! I did catch that one, and now I'm reading it again, slowly :) Here's a link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/23/magazine/cal-newport-interview.html
Connect/read/write is a great discipline for the new year. I'm also reminded of the power of paper and physical sketching--they tell you in design thinking sessions that adding a sketch to your post it note increases your investment in the idea and you ability to sell it. Thanks for posting Mark!
Thanks, Mike! It's funny, I didn't start sketching notes and generating metaphors using the "Sean Adams approach" until the last year or so; I had gone almost entirely to digital with note-taking and it's such a breath of fresh air and MUCH faster to generate ideas with a paper in pen, by far.
I cited a bunch of the research I found on the topic, and it's hardly decisive, but there are some truly excellent research and findings about the rate and effectiveness of paper & pen.
That said, I really don't care at this point.... I'm sold!
I completely agree with this but the LinkedIn part is frustrating me because I get such limited feedback. I'm getting a lot of readers, but I have to curate my feedback loops. What's been disapointnig in my AB testing on LinkedIn is that the more banal and mediocre the topic is, the more likely it gets engagement. Put a picture of Einstein with a falsely attributed quote! Tons of engagement. Put a piece about critical thinking....crickets :)
Great point, Michael. And that's also why I tried to emphasis that "beehives aren't built in a day," meaning, what I found is that it took about a year of consistent writing in public before comments actually started flowing, mostly, for me, on LinkedIn. Eventually, my "swarm" (modest such as it is!) started to build.
Writing / moving to Substack is actually an interesting case in point: already, I've had comments and interactions over there, even though I have hundreds of people subscribed to my Substack newsletter. My guess is it's the same effect -- it make take months or more to build a "hive" of people that interact.
But, of course, thank you for your comment :)
That's perfect. I'm about the 'Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast' mantra for my own writing. The benefit, to your point, is that by forcing myself to articulate these ideas, I am beginning to see patterns, confluences, and fusions of ideas that I think I can weave into a book eventually.